Theory of Natural Rights

Natural rights are one of the earliest grounds for claim of individual rights. Natural rights are natural claims because they are gifts of nature, product of law of nature and do not depend upon any authority or sovereign power for recognition, prescription and enforcement. Two grounds, contractual and teleological, have been identified to support the theory of natural rights.

Contractual ground implies that they carry the natural rights, which were available to individuals in the state of nature, in civil society as a result of their social contract. These rights are inalienable and cannot be separated or taken away from the individual as they are inherent and prior to society and the state. They are inviolable and cannot be changed by sovereign or the authority of the state, as they are a product of law of nature or an unchangeable cause and not created by the sovereign. The natural rights are imprescriptible as they are not prescribed and sanctioned by sovereign.

Teleological view of the natural rights looks at the final purpose, which these rights serve. This could be the purpose of moral development of human beings and their progress. Teleological or teleology stands for the ultimate cause and associates everything with a purpose and an end. It is derived from the Greek word telos, which means ‘end’.

Both contractual and teleological grounds support claims for natural rights with the help of certain overarching, final and unchangeable causes—law of nature on contractual ground and moral character of human beings on teleological ground.

Natural rights are linked with early liberalism and two of its ardent advocates, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke. They provide contractual ground to the theory of natural rights. Blackstone, Spinoza and Jefferson supported theory of natural rights. In contemporary times, Robert Nozick has employed the theory of natural rights to advance his concept of justice. Thomas Paine and Thomas Hill Green have advocated natural rights on the basis of inherent moral claim of the individual, teleological ground.